Python - Automation Tutorial

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Automation with Python involves using programming techniques to perform tasks automatically, typically without human intervention. Python provides various libraries to make it a powerful tool for automating different types of repetitive tasks including, task scheduling, web scraping, GUI automation and many more. By utilizing the Python's extensive libraries, can create automation solutions to fit specific needs.

Python Libraries for Automation

Following are the few of the Python libraries that are commonly used for automation −

  • unittest − Unit testing framework in Python.
  • Selenium − Web automation framework for testing web applications across different browsers.
  • Beautiful Soup − Library for parsing HTML and XML documents, used for web scraping.
  • pandas − Data manipulation library, useful for automating data analysis tasks.
  • requests − HTTP library for sending HTTP requests and handling responses.
  • Selenium − A web automation framework for testing web applications across different browsers.
  • PyAutoGUI − GUI automation library for simulating mouse and keyboard actions.

In this tutorial you will learn about the various aspects of automation using Python, from scheduling tasks with schedule module, web scraping with BeautifulSoup, and GUI automation with BeautifulSoup. It provides practical examples and please ensure that you have the necessary modules installed before executing the provided codes in your local system using the below commands in your command prompt −

pip install schedule
pip install beautifulsoup4
pip install pyautogui

Python Automation with the schedule Module

The schedule module in Python allows scheduling tasks to run automatically at specified intervals or times. It's ideal for automating repetitive tasks such as job scheduling, periodic tasks, or time-based events.

Example

This example demonstrates the application of Python for automating routine tasks such as scheduling weekly meetings, setting alarms, and more, using Python's schedule module.

import schedule
import time

# Function definitions for scheduled tasks
def alarm():
   print("Time to restart the server   ")

def job():
   print("Starting daily tasks   ")

def meet():
   print('Weekly standup meeting   ')

# Schedule tasks
schedule.every(5).seconds.do(alarm)  # Run every 5 seconds
schedule.every().day.at("10:30").do(job)  # Run daily at 10:30 AM
schedule.every().monday.at("12:15").do(meet)  # Run every Monday at 12:15 PM

# Main loop to execute scheduled tasks
while True:
   schedule.run_pending()
   time.sleep(0.5)

Output

On executing the above code we will get the following output −

Time to restart the server   
Time to restart the server   
Time to restart the server 
...

Python Web scraping

Web scraping is a straightforward example of automation task. It is a process of automatically extracting information from websites. This technique involves fetching web pages and extracting the required data from the HTML content. Web scraping is widely used for data mining, data analysis, and automated tasks where collecting information from the web is necessary.

Example

This example demonstrates how to use BeautifulSoup and the urllib.request module to scrape a webpage for URLs containing the keyword "python".

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from urllib.request import urlopen
import re

html = urlopen("https://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/index.htm")
content = html.read()
soup = BeautifulSoup(content, "html.parser")
for a in soup.findAll('a',href=True):
   if re.findall('python', a['href']):
      print("Python URL:", a['href'])

Output

On executing the above code we will get the following output −

 
Python URL: /machine_learning_with_python/index.htm
Python URL: /python_pandas/index.htm
Python URL: /python/index.htm
Python URL: /python/index.htm
Python URL: /python_pandas/index.htm
Python URL: /python_pillow/index.htm
Python URL: /machine_learning_with_python/index.htm
Python URL: /python_technologies_tutorials.htm
Python URL: /python/index.htm
....

Automating Mouse Movements with pyautogui

The pyautogui module allows your Python scripts to automate mouse movements, keyboard inputs, and window interactions, useful for testing GUI applications or automating repetitive desktop tasks.

Example

This example demonstrates how the Python's pyautogui module can be used to automate mouse movements in a square pattern.

import pyautogui

# Move the mouse in a larger square pattern
for i in range(5):
   pyautogui.moveTo(300, 100, duration=0.25)   
   pyautogui.move(300, 0, duration=0.25)       
   pyautogui.move(0, 300, duration=0.25)       
   pyautogui.move(-300, 0, duration=0.25)      
   pyautogui.move(0, -300, duration=0.25)

Output

On executing the above code we will get the following output −

python_automation GIF

Automating Unit Testing in Python

The unittest module in Python is used for automated testing. Automated unit testing is the practice of writing tests for individual units of code, such as functions or methods, and running these tests automatically to ensure they behave as expected. The unittest module in Python is a built-in library that provides a framework for creating and running automated tests.

Example

This example demonstrates how to use the unittest module in Python to perform automated testing on string methods. Each test case method begins with the prefix test_, which is recognized by the unittest framework as a method to run.

# importing unittest module
import unittest

class TestingStringMethods(unittest.TestCase):
   # string equal
   def test_string_equality(self):
      # if both arguments are then it's succes
      self.assertEqual('ttp' * 5, 'ttpttpttpttpttp')
   
   # comparing the two strings
   def test_string_case(self):
      # if both arguments are then it's succes
      self.assertEqual('Tutorialspoint'.upper(), 'TUTORIALSPOINT')

   # checking whether a string is upper or not
   def test_is_string_upper(self):
      # used to check whether the statement is True or False
      self.assertTrue('TUTORIALSPOINT'.isupper())
      self.assertFalse('TUTORIALSpoint'.isupper())
      
   def test_string_startswith(self):
       # Used the startswith() to identify the start of the string
       self.assertTrue('tutorialspoint'.startswith('putor'))
       self.assertFalse('tutorialspoint'.startswith('point'))
       
# running the tests
unittest.main(verbosity=2)

Output

On executing the above code we will get the following output −

test_is_string_upper (__main__.TestingStringMethods) ... ok
test_string_case (__main__.TestingStringMethods) ... ok
test_string_equality (__main__.TestingStringMethods) ... ok
test_string_startswith (__main__.TestingStringMethods) ... FAIL

======================================================================
FAIL: test_string_startswith (__main__.TestingStringMethods)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 23, in test_string_startswith
    self.assertTrue('tutorialspoint'.startswith('putor'))
AssertionError: False is not true

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 4 tests in 0.000s

FAILED (failures=1)
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